[Ezekiella]

I'm already in reasonably good shape so I'm not too concerned about this personally but a lot of my friends have started doing yoga classes and gotten into good shape quite quickly, and you often read in women's magazines about Victoria's Secret models and celebrities and so on doing yoga and pilates and stuff like that to get their figures.

So to those who have done yoga, is it actually a good way to get in shape? (I have no experience with it so thought I'd ask)

[mistermeowingtons]

Yoga is good for improving flexibility, but you don't burn a huge amount of calories doing it. If you're purely looking to get into shape then there are other exercises that would be much more effective.

[Retrodiction]

Adam Levine claims he got the kind of body he has by doing a certain type of yoga a lot. You should check it out if you're interested.

[Cassius]

I did yoga and I certainly didn't notice any very quick results, but it's a nice, relaxing form of exercise. One thing my yoga teacher did say was that through doing it for a long time, her ribcage grew bigger because of all the deep breathing. So it might expand your back/ribs, but otherwise it'll keep you in good shape

[McHumpy92]

No, it is ****ing pathetic

[Old School]

(Original post by McHumpy92)
No, it is ****ing pathetic

Pretty much this.

Sure it'll make you more flexible and stuff but essentially load free training is pretty pointless when compared to other forms of exercise. Namely, heavy weight training and sprinting.

[tooosh]

No. I use some yoga moves to improve on flexibility on parts that directly impact my weight training. But yoga on it's own is pointless unless you're specifically inflexible somewhere..

[Ezekiella]

(Original post by Old School)
Pretty much this.

Sure it'll make you more flexible and stuff but essentially load free training is pretty pointless when compared to other forms of exercise. Namely, heavy weight training and sprinting.

I actually already lift weights and sprint intervals (plus row when I have the time) but I feel I'm looking way too bulky right now, would like to slim down and seem a bit more feminine. I'm only around 5 foot and 54kg but compared to the girls doing a lot of cardio in my gym I notice I seem a lot heavier.

[medicinemm]

(Original post by Ezekiella)
I'm already in reasonably good shape so I'm not too concerned about this personally but a lot of my friends have started doing yoga classes and gotten into good shape quite quickly, and you often read in women's magazines about Victoria's Secret models and celebrities and so on doing yoga and pilates and stuff like that to get their figures.

So to those who have done yoga, is it actually a good way to get in shape? (I have no experience with it so thought I'd ask)

If you're planning on bulking up, then no, then you should do weight lifting and sprinting. But I do pilates and I think it's pretty good, it improved my posture loads, which makes you look a hell of a lot thinner, it flattened my stomach and made me feel much less flabby everywhere pretty quickly. If you do it correctly, and often enough, its an effective way of shaping up. It works great for me if I do an hour every day.

[Old School]

(Original post by medicinemm)
If you're planning on bulking up, then no, then you should do weight lifting and sprinting. But I do pilates and I think it's pretty good, it improved my posture loads, which makes you look a hell of a lot thinner, it flattened my stomach and made me feel much less flabby everywhere pretty quickly. If you do it correctly, and often enough, its an effective way of shaping up. It works great for me if I do an hour every day.

No not really, 'bulking' is a product of diet. Lifting and sprinting is the most efficient way to build some muscle and burn some fat (in other words get 'toned') for guys and girls. There have been enough threads on this recently so go look through them, or even better- do a google search.

If yoga and stuff has worked for you then great. However that doesn't mean that it's a superior than weights and sprints for body recomposition. However, weights and sprints are hard which is why few actually do it and even fewer do it properly.

[Spontogical]

I used it intensively for flexibility. I don't use it to replace my strength workouts though; that's silly.

[Ezekiella]

(Original post by Old School)
No not really, 'bulking' is a product of diet. Lifting and sprinting is the most efficient way to build some muscle and burn some fat (in other words get 'toned') for guys and girls. There have been enough threads on this recently so go look through them, or even better- do a google search.

If yoga and stuff has worked for you then great. However that doesn't mean that it's a superior than weights and sprints for body recomposition. However, weights and sprints are hard which is why few actually do it and even fewer do it properly.

Thanks! If I want to continue lifting, sprinting, and remain strong but still get slimmer does that mean I should cut my diet and/or lift lower weights but at higher reps? I already eat pretty healthily but I tried cutting my portion size over the last week (e.g. eating one chicken wrap instead of two) and I've ended up feeling really hungry and tired. My body fat percentage is apparently 22% though so I could do with losing a bit of weight.

[Old School]

(Original post by Ezekiella)
Thanks! If I want to continue lifting, sprinting, and remain strong but still get slimmer does that mean I should cut my diet and/or lift lower weights but at higher reps? I already eat pretty healthily but I tried cutting my portion size over the last week (e.g. eating one chicken wrap instead of two) and I've ended up feeling really hungry and tired. My body fat percentage is apparently 22% though so I could do with losing a bit of weight.

If you want to cut fat then continue training as you are. Towards the tail end of a diet your lift numbers might drop a little (maybe 5-10%, depends on the individual, type of diet and so on) however this should not be a conscious change i.e. don't start doing the whole light weight high reps thing. Keep things hard and heavy. If you want to keep the muscle that you worked hard for then you have to keep hitting the body with the same stimuli that built it in the first place.

Unfortunately dieting makes you feel like crap. For anyone who doesn't want to compete in or look like they're going to compete in a bodybuilding/figure show cutting portion sizes is a pretty simple (and reasonably effective) way of getting rid of fat. When I'm dieting I take in almost all of my carbs before, during and after my training sessions. This helps me with the tiredness (whether or not it enhances fat burning is debatable) and keeps me strong. However, this may not work for you so you need to experiment- which tbh is one of the things I enjoy most about training, learning about your body and how to make it as efficient as possible.

Also, bf% is retarded. Take pictures. If you think you're fat then cut some weight and take some more pictures. Repeat until you're happy. The camera does not lie, bf% and scale weight does.

[Ezekiella]

(Original post by Old School)
If you want to cut fat then continue training as you are. Towards the tail end of a diet your lift numbers might drop a little (maybe 5-10%, depends on the individual, type of diet and so on) however this should not be a conscious change i.e. don't start doing the whole light weight high reps thing. Keep things hard and heavy. If you want to keep the muscle that you worked hard for then you have to keep hitting the body with the same stimuli that built it in the first place.

Unfortunately dieting makes you feel like crap. For anyone who doesn't want to compete in or look like they're going to compete in a bodybuilding/figure show cutting portion sizes is a pretty simple (and reasonably effective) way of getting rid of fat. When I'm dieting I take in almost all of my carbs before, during and after my training sessions. This helps me with the tiredness (whether or not it enhances fat burning is debatable) and keeps me strong. However, this may not work for you so you need to experiment- which tbh is one of the things I enjoy most about training, learning about your body and how to make it as efficient as possible.

Also, bf% is retarded. Take pictures. If you think you're fat then cut some weight and take some more pictures. Repeat until you're happy. The camera does not lie, bf% and scale weight does.

Ah thanks very much! Think I'll have to start taking pictures in front of the mirror... Are my measurements a good way of telling too or do they sometimes go up even if you burn fat because you put on muscle?

[Old School]

(Original post by Ezekiella)
Ah thanks very much! Think I'll have to start taking pictures in front of the mirror... Are my measurements a good way of telling too or do they sometimes go up even if you burn fat because you put on muscle?

Don't know really would be my honest answer. Sorry!

[Becca]

(Original post by Ezekiella)
Ah thanks very much! Think I'll have to start taking pictures in front of the mirror... Are my measurements a good way of telling too or do they sometimes go up even if you burn fat because you put on muscle?

It depends how much fat you have on you to begin with, but as a general rule, fat takes up more space than muscle. A lb of fat has more volume than a lb of muscle.